X-Force: Family Ties
by KJAX89
Summary: Book 3: Apex and Greer's story continues after our panther returns to the X-Mansion months after disappearing without a trace with new threats facing the ferals and the rest of the X-Men. Things get serious for the felines but the past never stays past. Set in the 906 universe.
1. Chapter 1

**_New book ... and this one is about clearing house and getting to all the things I've been wanting to get to ... and think you'll all appreciate. All our favorite character are here and so a special thanks to Cheshire and Canuckle. You two are amazing and way better then I am or hope to be. Thanks for letting Apex have some friends._**

 ** _Now onto the first ..._**

* * *

Tracking him at first wasn't that hard. All she had to do was follow the reports of missing persons. Keep tabs of the trips Fury made in the middle of the night holed up in Xavier's office. The lull in missions that weren't much more than pickups.

A mutant slave trader ring leader gone off the map.

Anti-Mutant Senator from Wyoming missing after a hiking accident.

A Middle-Eastern terror network known for enslaving mutants gone dark.

Then the news broke that the Hellfire Club was under siege. Sebastian Shaw even intercepted Scott and Jean on a weekend getaway in some vain attempt to get leverage but that failed in spectacular fashion. Shaw was found three weeks later in a remote village in Peru. Almost impossible to kill by conventional means, Kitty was able to find out that the cause of death had been ruled starvation. He'd been found nailed to a tree.

"For Vanyss." Greer had growled with some satisfaction when she'd read the report.

"Or a warning." Ororo replied cautiously.

After that things went dark. Greer had silently thought that with the Hellfire Club (temporarily) destroyed Colton would come back. She'd be pissed for a while but he'd come back.

But as one month led into two and the summer wore on ... the truth began to sink in.

He didn't want to be found.

Colton wasn't coming back.

* * *

 _3 Months Later_

Across the world, Apex found himself standing in a familiar scene. With two important differences.

He'd been tracking a group of disaffected Weapon X scientists willing to sell what they knew about the 'feral meta-gene' to the highest bidder. It didn't surprise him that SHIELD was working to intercept them. Fury would probably claim it was to keep it off the market. But Apex was certain he'd also probably claim to not have a feral task force locked up in western Montana.

Regardless, SHIELD had intel that he needed and he wanted scrubbed from their servers. Breaking into the safe house was simple. All SHIELD safe houses checked off the same boxes and using the same few military contractors meant their layouts and security protocols were predictable. He'd spent a week using one in Madrid to interrogate a target simply by tagging it as 'under construction' on their network.

This safe house was in Berlin. Five man surveillance team. Four men. One woman. One meta code name: Echo. Sound manipulation. Useful for spying but not much for offensive combat. Fourth floor. Six rooms. Three exits including the escape shaft in the last bedroom on the left that leads straight to the subbasement and the waiting SUVs. Computer dock in the main room.

He slipped in while they were asleep, checking the scents and only pausing for a moment before moving on and getting the information he needed.

But an hour later when he dropped into the makeshift Weapon X lab to find it surrounded by bodies ... it was something he was familiar with. The difference was that he hadn't been the one to put them there. The flick of his tail showed he was annoyed ... he'd been tracking this group for almost three days.

His tail waved over the bodies as he surveyed the scene trying to figure out what had happened. The smell of fresh blood mixed with the chemicals from the trashed lab made a scent worthless. So he kneeled over one of the bodies to see what he could learn about the team that had done this.

What he saw got the giant panther to first cock his head to side as he tried to understand what he was seeing ... three clean cuts ... deep ... equal distanced apart ... he'd seen this sort of kill before.

Apex slowly raised from his crouch and looked around the lab, his hackles rising as he fought the obvious. He knew who had done this. It just couldn't have been her. The panther closed his eyes, trying to think when the air shifted a scent hit him, his eyes immediately flashing open.

Only taking long enough to place chargers on the computers and ensuring the chemical fire would take care of the rest, Apex raced back across the city before crashing through the metal enforced doors that led into the SHIELD safehouse. The fact he was still alone confirmed what he'd already known.

He had recognized the scent from the lab was the same misplaced one he had smelled before. Stalking deeper into the apartment he found all five SHIELD agents slashed ... their bodies tossed around the kitchen over what must have been their last dinner.

This whole thing was wrong. The lab. The safe house. Both teams must have been dead for hours ... almost a day at this point. Weapon X. SHIELD. It didn't fit. But one thing was clear:

K had done this.

K had killed them all.

* * *

It was the first day for new students at Xavier's. New students ranged from excited, to scared, to just lost looking for Professor Ororo's english lit class. Older students were reclaiming preferred spots and catching up over the summer. Those students that stayed at the school full time relieved to have their friends back or at least a distraction for the teachers to focus on. But as always, once the morning rush had subsided another ripple of excitement ran through the school: evaluations.

New kids got to show off their abilities and older students got the chance to show what they'd been working on. As always, the chance to get a spot on a junior team was on everyone's mind. Well that was almost the only thing on their midns ... because evaluations were as always taken by Logan and K. While some students dreamed of getting one over on the feral couple, the smarter ones knew that simply staying vertical for the allotted time was an achievement. Something very few students were ever able to pull off despite the pair routinely doing their part with a cup of coffee in their hand.

Logan had come in after dawn from an Avenger's run so K had let him sleep. Wasn't like she couldn't handle a room full of teenagers either desperate to showoff or so nervous they could barely look her in the eye.

So when Logan's Avenger device started beeping he let out a low curse as it woke him. He glared at it for a moment but considering the only people who could raise him directly were Rodgers and Fury ...

"This better be good," Logan grumbled into the device.

"Where's K?" The fact Apex had somehow gotten a line into his Avenger's com, or that he was reaching out after all these months didn't register as surprising to Logan. But the panteher's tone got him to at least sit up.

"Why?" Logan wasn't about to answer any questions over a line clearly compromised or anything having to do with his wife.

"I'm in Berlin. K wiped out a Weapon X lab," the kid's tone was still off to Logan. How was that worth a call ... even if it didn't make much sense. Course K might have slipped out last night just for fun.

"No she didn't," Logan replied flatly. "And on some wild chance she was out stretchin', It's none of your damn business."

"And a SHIELD recon outpost." Logan went quiet as Apex tried again, "where's K?"

"Exactly where she should be," Logan answered. "And that's all I'm saying."

Apex witheld a growl at Logan's expected lack of information but happened to glance at a calendar in the kitchen and his tail went still. It was the first day of term. Looking back around at the bodies ... at the very K like slashes ... at the cameras that he knew must have been recording before he shut them down ... and he suddenly realized what had happened. What was about to happen.

"She's one of the students." Apex growled into the phone as the sound of car doors closing and hushed voices echoed up from the street outside, the panther working quickly to toss all the bodies into the kitchen and cut the gas line to the oven as he rigged an explosive.

"Who's one of the students?" Logan was up and dressed at this point as he headed for the door.

"X-23." Apex snarled as he jumped rooftops just in time for the entire floor he'd been on to exploded into flame.

...

K had been running the evaluations down in the Danger Room for the last half hour. The students around her did their best to either impress her or escape her attention entirely. K meanwhile seemed to be more interested in her coffee then in what they were doing paired off but that was far from the truth. K had already mentally marked all of the new kids in desperate need of the basics and a few of the older students finally seemed to have taken the next step for them to start Summer's strategy classes and maybe even Kitty's hacking for the ones interested.

"Alright ... everybody line up. Let's see what you got." The students almost entirely made up of teenagers managed to group around K in a semi-circle ... so close enough.

"Derrick ... let's see if a summer off made a difference," K called out one of the older students she could tell had been doing his best to show off as K had been making her way around. The fact his sparring partner was now sporting a black eye evidence enough. Cautious but cocky, Derrick, a rather tall and gangly sixteen-year old had finally managed to put on some size, and at this point stood a head taller than his teacher.

"You waitin' for an invitation?" K drawled as she shifted her mug to her left hand and looked like she'd just called Derrick up to solve a math problem. But Derrick had seen this shtick before and moved in quickly, not letting the little ferals demeanor throw him off. He actually managed to get K to take a few steps back and check a kick but the second he smiled laughter rang out as l Derrick had somehow seen the world rotate around him and he was on the ground and K was above him offering a hand up.

"Not bad ... but let's leave the suburban dojo nonsense at home." K said it loud enough for everyone to hear as Derrick went back to his friends and K turned back to the assembled teenagers, now eying her far more warily then before.

"Okay," K said brightly. "Who's next ... somebody step up or I'll start calling names again." A girl shrugged forwards, her eyes downcast as she stepped across from K who gave her a quick once-over: she was short, barely five foot and maybe 100 pounds, with black straight hair and with the way that baggy sweatshirt hung on her she guessed pretty skinny. Easily the smallest teen in the group ... which forced K to smile a bit. Few things she respected more than someone who didn't need to be prompted, even when the rest of the class was so obviously wary.

"What's your name?" K. She shifted a little as if unsure what to say before barely muttering out a response.

"Laura."

"Nice to meet you, Laura ... let's see what you can do."

K stood her ground and let Laura come to her and as the girl slowly shuffled away from the group K's brow furrowed as a brief moment of something close to recognition crossed her face as her arms dropped to her sides, Laura seemingly a bit more steady moving closer.

"What did you say your name was-" K's mug crashed to the floor as her hand shot up to block the sudden set of claws that had rushed to plunge themselves into her neck and instead lodged themselves into her arm, an almost familiar snarl and set of green eyes glaring into hers before X-23 kicked K in the chest and flipped back into a fighting position, her sweatshirt gone and glaring up at K.

"Everyone out," K spoke calmly to the class, shifting her stance into one a lot more smooth and controlled, as if this was a normal demonstration she'd already planned, something the students thought might be the case.

"Professor ... should we ..."

"Out!" K ordered as Laura charged once again and this time the students ran for the exit as K started to fight someone who seemed as if they had half a prayer of keeping up. By the time Logan had rushed past the fleeing students K and X-23 were trading slashes and snarls at a rate hard to track. But it was obvious that despite K sporting a number of slash marks including a nasty gash down her thigh ... she had the advantage over her younger opponent. Logan came in time to see K spin under a flurry of claws to land a single hard shot of her own that sent X-23 stumbling backwards with a hiss.

"You alright?" Logan called out to K as she disengaged and took a step back to line up across from the approaching Logan, leaving a clearly furious X-23 between them.

"Peachy. Kid has no manners though," K commented as she took stock and seemed to finally take note of the amount of blood covering her outfit. "Another friend?"

"No," Logan commented as he held up a hand, fingers outstretched on his approach to the angry girl. "Take it easy now, girl. No reason to start something you can't finish."

X-23 snarled at Logan's approach but all three ferals could hear the storm of footsteps coming their way as the rest of the X-Men ran for the Danger Room. Seeming out of desperation, X-23 charged at Logan who stood his ground, easily blocking her wild swings but when she threw a kick he read as almost lazy, he caught it before it could make contact with his head ... right before the toe claw popped out and sliced clear through his neck.

"Logan!" K had been happy to watch Logan handle the pup till she watched him go down, blood spurting from the gash in his neck. Laura rolled out of the way as K went to cover her mate and just as she could hear Scott and Bobby hit their floor she saw the girl grab something from her pocket and a huge explosion rocked what felt like the entire Mansion.

By the time a dust covered Kurt appeared with Hank ... X-23 was gone. A hole sliced clear into the Danger Room wall leading to the ventilation.

"What on earth was that?" Hank muttered more focused on replacing his hands where K's were around Logan's neck, though she shrugged him off to give him more time to heal before bleeding out.

"Sounded like ..." K was trying to place it.

"It sounded like all the munitions you and Logan keep locked in the hangar." Scott said clearly pissed, taking in the scene as he walked in, and with a few scraped and bruises but overall OK as he tried to help check over K who brushed him off. Bobby came stumbling in after him looking pretty much the same though a bit more dazed. He'd run to put out the fire.

"The kids were all yelling some student tried attacking you but ... a student really did all this?" Bobby sounded doubtful as he glanced from K, to the now coughing and grumbling Logan, and back out to the smoke still billowing from the explosion.

"Not sure I'd call her a student." K growled as she went over to check on the now mostly recovered Logan.

"So what would you call her?" Scott pressed as the rest of the X-Men at this point had either made their way downstairs or were busy upstairs calming the students and running security checks.

"A failed weapon." K growled.


	2. Chapter 2

Greer had been finishing up the school's final perimeter check with Warren and Betsy when she'd heard a faint rumble that had either been thunder ... or a fairly large explosion. Living and working at Xavier's for this long, Greer had barely needed to check the sky before sprinting for the school as Warren went for the clouds to try and gain some visibility.

"Anything?" Greer breathed into her com as she approached the more manicured lawns of the property.

"Nothing close outside the scool. Smoke's coming from the vents ... must have happened underground. Accident in the Danger Room?" Warren guessed. But that didn't sit right with Greer, her lithe tigress body streaking across the grounds as a number of students blurred past. Logan and K were doing the only activities down there this morning and evaluations were always hand to hand.

"I doubt it. Maybe a new student got a bit excited when Logan popped his claws?" Greer tossed out as she came out of her run in time to leap the distance over the patio and straight indoors, startling another group of teenagers but she was already following the scent of what only could have been a rather large explosion downstairs, catching sight as what looked like most of the X-Men were standing in the Danger Room. She was about to ask what had happened but it seemed that discussion was already under way.

"So we're talking about _another_ weapon showing up here and came after Logan?" Bobby's tone was a mixture of disbelief and resignation. A feeling clearly shared by the rest of the assembled team.

"It went after K first." Scott pointed out.

"Not the first time a weapon went after Logan through someone he cares about." Rogue countered.

"I dunno ... Tommy and Brian were down here and their memory tells me she went after K like it was personal." Jean added thoughtfully, clearly scanning all the minds that had been downstairs to witness - well whatever had ended up with Logan covered in blood and K looking like she'd had a fight with a very angry set of knives. Greer tilted her head as she noticed that as the rest of the X-Men discussed the attack the two ferals didn't seem to be adding much. They just stood near each other, sharing a few looks.

"Wait it was a she?" Rogue's tone was surprised as she realized what Jean had said.

"And a student ... or at least young enough to look like one." K finally added at little more than a grumble. It was at this point that Greer's ears shot up before slowly falling flat, a movement Logan noted but saved for later. For now, he just wanted to talk to his wife.

"We got video of her and I got her scent. I'll track her down and figure out what the hell this was about." Logan's tone made it clear he was done with the conversation as he wrapped an arm around K and headed for the exit.

"I don't like you trying to handle this on your own, Logan," Scott said with a frown as he eyed the amount of blood covering both ferals and Logan in particular. But Wolverine just kept walking past.

"It's my problem, Slim," Logan growled in response.

"Be that as it may, _your problem_ came looking for you in our school. And I don't care if you two can heal - I don't like watching my team get banged up. Especially where even you two _should_ be safe."

Logan bristled and turned to say something snarky in response, but K got there first. "We'll talk about it later, fearless. Right now though ..."

"We gotta talk," Logan finished. As the two of them left, K's voice was low enough that Greer was pretty sure she was the only one to hear it despite having taken a careful step out of the smaller ferals path. Greer watched wide eyed for a moment as the two left the Danger Room before growling a bit to herself and blowing a piece of hair out of her face. Of course they'd know.

Logan and K headed straight upstairs and closed the door to their room as the pair stripped off their bloody clothes. K waited until Logan had scrubbed most of the blood off in the sink before she started.

"Did you know about her?"

"Who?" Logan asked distracted as he wiped his face dry.

"Your daughter." K's tone was neutral but her eyes were locked onto her husband's face as the towel slowly dropped from his face. She'd known going in that Logan's relationship with his children was ... complicated. At times homicidal. But that didn't mean K wanted anything less than the truth.

"She ain't mine." Logan shook his head but K's expression showed how clearly she knew that he was simply in denial.

"You had to scent her. That on its own is enough to prove it. But claws? Not real common, sweetheart. Not to mention her fighting style was a little familiar, don'tcha think? You know. Like someone tried to make another knockoff version of you." K crossed her arms, finding it hard to believe that he couldn't see it, but Logan shook his head.

"It don't make any sense darlin'. The math just doesn't add up. That kid had to be what ... fourteen? Sixteen tops? I know for a fact I wasn't tangled up with anyone. Not even part time."

"Right. Well. Your hobbies not withstanding at the time, face it. She's one of yours. And you know it." K didn't leave any room for debate on the topic but Logan for seemed determined to ignore the obvious.

"I do not know it. Kid could be anything ... clone even. Know they've been tryin' to do it for years. Maybe someone finally figured it out. I leave blood around enough places ... seen it hawked more than once." Logan sounded like he was reasoning as much with himself as with K as he started tossing clothes for the two of them into a bag. K meanwhile stopped what she was doing and pointedly stared at him before she took the flannel shirt out of his hand and pushed him onto the bed.

"Okay, first of all, you're not the only one that can smell a lie - and you are lying to yourself. But really? Really. I can't even begin to list the many ways that is wrong ... the whole cloning thing makes even less sense. Sweetheart," K climbed on top of him and took his head in both of her hands before she gave him a long kiss to force him to pay attention. "I don't care who or what you did before I came along. Not an issue. This isn't your fault. She isn't your fault. but she's yours. And we're gonna find her."

Logan just looked at K as he took her in and taking a few breaths let before finally letting them out slowly and pulling K in closer as he rumbled out another thought, the look in the kid's eyes flashing through his mind. The hate ... the fury that he saw there.

"Unless she finds us first." But K just smirked up at him.

"Like that's an option. You're the best. Everyone knows it. So let's find this kid."

* * *

"So that was the kid who kicked your ass huh?" K and Logan had found Greer waiting in the garage for them, clearly anxious as her tail whipped behind her. Her head popped up at K's comment as she walked through the door, earning a flash of fang from the tigress.

"She did not _kick my ass_." Greer hissed back.

"Pretty sure you came back short a tail Tigger. Think that qualifies." Logan pointed out as he tossed their bag into the jeep.

"And I'm pretty sure she left you without a neck. Guess that makes us all even." Greer shot back clearly hurt at the dig at her skills and the memory of growing back her tail, earning a smirk from K as she gave Logan a 'she's got a point' shrug.

"Alright Tigger ... pride aside, what can you tell us about our newest admirer?" Greer took a breath as she tucked some hair behind her ear as she tried to look relaxed recalling her memories of the last time she'd seen the little psycho attacker. She'd never paused at the fact Logan and K had figured out that she knew about her ... it wasn't like X-Force debriefed like other teams beyond Ap - him knowing everything. And _he_ had never been one to share.

"Not a lot ... I remember Stryker introducing her as the next Weapon program ... something about knowing what a 'real' weapon looked like ... learning from past mistakes? Then he sicked her one me. Anything about that make any sense?" Greer looked back up in time to catch the look K and Logan had been sharing and she wondered what they'd been thinking. K's smile was gone though and Logan looked ... well the way he looked when anyone brought up Stryker.

"And you didn't think to share this with anyone else?" Logan's tone didn't quite distract Greer from K but it was enough to get her to attention.

"Of course I did. But you know how _he_ could be." Greer had refused to even say Colton's name for months. This was actually the most she'd talked about him in about as long.

"Sounds familiar," Logan grumbled as he considered what Greer had shared. So the kid was definitely from Weapon X ... meaning however messed up they thought she was the truth was probably worse. It had never occurred to Logan that a child would get brought up in a hell like Weapon X ... brought up by someone like Stryker.

"We'll be sure to ask Fuzz why keeping this to himself was a good idea when we see him." K's tone was hard to place but it didn't sound like it would be a conversation Colton would -

"Wait what do you mean 'when you see him?'" Greer's hackles shot up as she looked between the two ferals as they climbed in the jeep.

"Best guess is Colton was tracking this kid or Weapon X." Logan said as he started the engine.

"Explains how he was able to warn us before the attack." K agreed as she leaned into her seat.

"C - he called to - he warned you?" Greer took a step closer to the now rumbling jeep to stand by K's passenger window.

"Yup," Logan nodded, "and knowing him he's either on his way here to find out what happened or already working to track this girl down. Either way ... sure we'll be seeing him." and with a quick nod at his adopted daughter Logan hit the gas and sped off towards the gates.

Greer watched them go with a frown on her face as she worked to not care what a particular panther may or may not be doing. Even if it did bring him back.

"Not that I care." Greer growled and turning on her heel walked back inside. She had other shit to do.

* * *

Once the two Howletts were far enough away from the Mansion to ensure that Greer wouldn't be able to overhear, K settled deeper into her seat as the wind whipped around her and returned to their previous conversation with a slightly different angle.

"You really think Apex is gonna find the girl before us?" K's tone wasn't confident as much as skeptical.

"Maybe. Finding mutants is what he did." Logan gruffed. K ignored his tone and the fact he was clearly stilled rankled talking about the girl. But there were things to be said still.

"You mean hunting mutants. I never did get a solid answer on what it was Colton did for them. Was it that he hunt us down?" There was a bit of heat in K's voice now but Logan didn't stoke it.

"Never talked about it. From what Fury hinted at it always seemed he was in some spec-ops for them ... or enough to mess with SHIELD and keep em spooked. Knowing Stryker it was probably more like a kill squad. Training fits." Logan shifted gears as the moved to the highway.

"So what'd happen if Colton gets to Laura before we do?" It took a few beats before K opened her eyes as Logan didn't answer ... which was answer enough, "but she's a kid." Logan just seemed to focus harder on the road and K turned in her seat to look at Logan fully.

"Logan, she's a kid. He's gotta know she's YOUR kid. He wouldn't take her out, right? He'd bring her in."

"That girl took out a SHIELD recon team, a Weapon X lab, and infiltrated and attacked Xavier's."

"What's your point, sweetheart?" K drawled, clearly unimpressed with the list. Sounded like a fun weekend to her.

"And Apex - being Apex - will see her as a threat." Logan's tone was flat as they wound through the forests of upstate New York.

"Again ... she's a kid. Apex wouldn't take out a hit on a kid." K shook her head, most everything she'd seen from the giant, stupid panther might have annoyed her but one thing she'd given Fuzz was his protective streak around the students ... all kids really. "Not if he wants to live long enough to see if he can lick his own balls after I get done snapping him in half."

But again Logan was silent. K's eyebrows went up.

"He's done this before, hasn't he?" K's tone was hollow and Logan finally glanced over at his wife to say something when K glanced at the road -"LOGAN!"

K had caught a glimpse of the woman as she seemed to just walk into the middle of the road leaving no time to stop but when the jeep hit her it was the car that felt like it had been smashed, careening across the road before tumbling side over side and sending Logan and K tumbling across the asphalt until the managed to roll to a stop, both quickly healing from the multiple cuts and skid burns covering their bodies.

"What the hell ... you alright?" Logan growled out as the two ferals instinctively moved together as the looked back at the wrecked jeep and somehow the same woman shaking herself off as she slowly got to her feet. Without a scratch on her. K saw that she was tall, lean, Latina perhaps, dressed in a body suit that reminded her of an orange and black X-Force uniform but it was the smirk she had on her face as she turned to look at them that got K growling. She'd seen smirks like that ... on people like Creed.

"Do you know this one, too?" K considered this might be yet another weapon but Logan just shook his head and growled as yet another scent hit K's nose and she let out a growl to match her mate, turning so that she was now back to back with Logan as Viper came to stand at the other end of the road.

"Miss me?" Viper's tone was taunting and confident and K really wanted to just stab her in that stupid green tinged face.

"Apparently," K snarled back before she dropped her voice so Logan would be the only one to catch it. "I'm gonna remove your ex-wife's head."

"I got the tank." Logan growled right back and the two rushed towards their respective targets with surprising speed for anyone that never saw a feral fight. K managed to dodge the darts that were tossed at her and soon she and Viper were trading blows, K aiming to slice her head off and settling for tendons and Viper's cuts pumping K with enough venom to stop a small elephant. It slowed her down ... a little.

What did manage to get K to stop was hearing a dull thud and seeing Logan get smacked clear across the road. K managed to kick Viper off her feet with a curse and ran over to Wolverine.

"Bitch is invulnerable ... ain' even hittin' skin." Logan spat out with a fair amount of blood as he got to his feet. K glanced over to see the woman just staring at them with that smirk. K realized it was the look of somebody that already knew they were going to win. She hated that look.

"Wanna switch?" K

"All yours." Logan growled back and as K charged her new target she withdrew her claws, getting Ms. Invulnerable-Shit-Face-Grin to at least look surprised as K swung under the overhand and wrapped her arms around the woman's torso then suplexed her straight onto the concrete. K rolled to her feet with a grin but lost it as she saw that despite the massive crater the woman's head left ... she just brushed some gravel from her hair and looked pissed. Not a scratch. Not even a bruise.

"What now?" K growled and moved to attack when yet another scent hit her.

"Stop."

K froze. She couldn't move ... not her head ... not her arms ... nothing. Not even her eyes.

"Well ain' this a pretty picture." K heard the voice much clearer this time ... from just behind her. Male, British and smug.

"Claws away if you'd be so kind. Actually ... how about you two," K had a feeling he was pointing at her, "go stand together and make a pretty picture with your hands forward." Suddenly K felt her claws slide back and the first hint of fear hit her when she realized something was very, very wrong. She was walking and she couldn't stop it. This didn't feel like a psychic attack. She didn't feel drugged. She just couldn't stop herself.

"You take all the fun out of this ... you know that Kilgrave?" The woman she'd been fighting complained as she pushed her shoulder back into place.

"Oh relax Kimura ... I let you play with your food last time. And remember how that turned out?" K finally caught sight of the man, dressed much like Kimura, shorter ... maybe 5"9 tops, and what K guessed he attempted as rakish looks.

"She put her finger through his skull." Viper feigned disgust as she came over to stand with the other two.

"Oh don't be jealous dearie. I'm sure our wardens will let you give 'em a kiss if you ask nice enough." Kilgrave assured her ... at this point K was standing next to Logan and the two turned to face their three attackers.

"All of you can it. Blindspot, lock em up." If K had been able to speak she would have growled as an unmistakable SHIELD agent came into view. He was African-American, well built, bald, and looked every bit the soldier. But even that was cut short when she looked down at the feeling of a pair of cuffs on her wrists. She never saw anyone put them on and even more surprising she'd never heard or scented anyone get close to her. Who the hell ... and then suddenly there was yet another person standing amongst the group of assholes ... and he was easily the weirdest looking of the bunch. Tall and almost sickly thin, with pale skin and white hair like an albino, he looked to be in his early 20's ... younger then the rest of the group and clearly uncomfortable and unlike the rest dressed in a ratty pair of jeans and a white zip up. If the nerves was because of the company or simply being seen it was hard to tell. Then Blindspot noticed K and Logan eyeing him and just like that ... he was gone again.

"Blindspo - forget it. Kilgrave get Wolverine and Weapon K on the truck. We're out in five minutes."

"Yes Agent Young." Kilgrave gave a faux bow with a smile that clearly read 'I'll order you to eat your own face' but Agent Young didn't even botherto see it. Logan meanwhile growled as his assumption that this was SHIELD was shaken ... if Fury had been behind this then he would have come himself, Hill, or Cap. Fury knew better. So either this was going down without Fury's knowledge or he and K were in deeper shit then he thought.

"You two can just follow me ... oh and no fighting." Kilgrave tossed as an afterthought as he started walking back up the road and Logan and K followed suit. The three were almost past the group when just in their range of vision something flew across the sky and landed with a thud on Kimura's turned back.

"What the hell was -" and with a boom the C4 exploded, blasting most of the ferals' captors clear across the street into the ditch, and leaving Logan and K smoldering on the opposite side. There was no sign of Kimura who instead had been blasted clear into the forest, her cursing clearly heard even over the ringing in Logan and K's heads. The two barely had time to gather themselves and realize they could move when a familiar shadow appeared above them and with a sharp pain both fell into blackness.

* * *

"How'd you know it wasn't me?" K was back in the Mansion, dressed in sweats and nursing a cup of coffee with Logan at her side, both looking a bit worse for wear.

They'd woken up in the containment cells back at the Mansion after what they'd been told was close to two hours of Xavier and Jean working to ensure that any remaining 'commands' had been wiped clean. The entire experience had not left either in particularly pleasant moods.

Finding Colton waiting for them in the Danger Room once they'd been cleared hadn't improved things. Scott and Storm had come in as well. It was close to midnight but there were some pressing things that needed to get covered.

"How'd you know it wasn't me?" K had asked the first question she'd thought of when Apex had finished explaining how after he'd discovered the Weapon X and SHIELD members sliced he'd raced back and gone after what he knew was the intended target: K.

"It was wrong." Apex stated matter of factly as he punched in a few numbers on a wristband and the Danger Room came online, the scene shifting in front of them to show two different 'rooms' with the walls removed and a scene out of a slasher movie, bodies and blood everywhere, each one sliced with claws that seemed to fit perfectly to the petite feral who was now pacing around the scenes with Logan closely mirroring her movements. Ororo and Scott gave them space but seemed intent to keep a close eye on the panther as well.

"What was wrong?" Ororo asked as she glanced between the two scenes and had to admit that she'd seen K leave similar trails before.

"The style is off." Logan was standing in the middle of the SHIELD scene while K was standing in the middle of the Weapon X.

"The style?" Ororo wasn't quite following.

"He means these aren't my kills. All these slash marks ... not a single puncture wound ... and place must have been a mess. Like I said not my style." K finished with a shrug.

"Sounds like someone that had seen pictures of the aftermath of a feral's attack ... Logan's maybe?" Scott followed K's reasoning and agreed with her. Logan considered the scenes and nodded an almost confirmation. When you thought of it as someone staging one of his attacks and trying to make it look like K ... it almost worked.

"So whoever did this just wanted it to look like K was to blame ... put Weapon X and SHIELD on her." Ororo said.

"On us." Logan corrected.

"So what do we do now?" Jean had walked in to catch the tail end of the conversation after seeing the two ferals had left the infirmary.

"Same plan as before. We find the kid and bring her in." Logan's tone was normal but Scott's brow shot up.

"I'm sorry but have we skipped over the part where SHIELD has a team out there right now hunting you two down?" Scott asked skeptically.

"A team designed to bring you two in specifically it seems." Ororo added with her own look of concern. Logan and K meanwhile shared a look and shrug that clearly read, 'I'm not worried if you are.' K turned to look at Colton who had thus far been his usual quite self.

"You see enough of those amateurs?" K asked. Apex didn't need to guess what K was implying and simply nodded his head.

"Well that's good enough for me." Logan grunted.

"And what about Weapon X?" Jean threw out as the three X-Men already saw Logan and K were going to head back out as if they hadn't just been carried back unconcsious a few hours ago.

"What about 'em? Not like anything really changes far as they're concerned. Let me know when they _stop_ trying to capture or kill us. That'll be worth mentioning." Logan tossed over his shoulder as he and K left, the pair quitely agreeing to rest up the rest of the day and head out that night.

"And where are you going?" As soon as Logan and K left the Danger Room, Apex shut down the program and quickly moved to follow. Ororo however stepped in his way.

"Hunting." Apex didn't find the answer dramatic as his tone was neutral but that didn't stop the storm goddess from rolling her eyes.

"If those two can take the night you can too. Besides, you look underfed." Ororo waved her arm as if to lead him upstairs to eat but the panther didn't move.

"I'm not staying." Now Apex's tone had something to it, the tail twitch notwithstanding. Ororo however seemed undettered.

"You're not the first team member to come and go," there was a definite hardness on that last word, "but that doesn't mean you get to act like a stranger. Besides, Greer isn't here." Ororo might not have been aware of Colton's tendicies as the ferals but she knew enough that not explaining where the tigress actually was had caught the panther off guard. Men were all the same ... regardless if they had fur and a tail.

Apex had a safe house less than an hour from Xavier's but couldn't see the harm in grabbing some food. Letting Ororo take the lead the two headed upstairs to through the almost empty hallways of the Mansion. There seemed to be a mixed reaction to seeing him, some students stopping to openly stare and others nudging each other as he passed. Not that he cared either way ... he wasn't staying. He had left for a reason. A good reason.

Apex was following Storm past the library when a scent hit the panther and he turned to look into the library. A glimpse of blond hair and blue eyes ...

Ororo turned to make sure Colton hadn't slipped off and caught the giant cat giving his head a sharp shake and smirked. So much for not being tired.

Apex gave his head another shake, he could tell Ororo was saying something but he felt distracted ... what was he thinking about ...

"You!"

The roar shot Apex back to himself and Ororo came up short and let out a little curse as Apex turned around and met a familiar pair of green, slitted eyes. He stood completely still as she stalked towards him and stopped just short of his muzzle.

Apex simply stood there before there was an audible 'ouch' from the small crowd that had appeared at the sound of the typically friendly tigress's roar and the quick slash she put across Colton's face. Everyone held their breath as Colton slowly turned his face to look back at Greer who's expression hadn't changed.

"Welcome back." Greer hissed and promptly turned on her heel, her tail giving a sharp whip, leaving Apex bleeding where he stood.

"Greer." Apex rumbled quietly to himself.


End file.
